Have you ever found yourself needing access to a particular document you had stored on a jump drive or work computer? If you use multiple computers and mobile devices such as phones or tablets there is no doubt this has happened to you.
Dropbox is brilliant technology that gives you secure access to all your work documents such as client invoices, grain contracts, pictures, marketing pieces and any other documents. These files can be accessed by any computer or mobile device and can be setup to automatically synchronize whenever an internet connection is detected.
Sharing files with employees or customers is as simple as sending an email invitation to the individual. Once the invitation is accepted they have access to only the file you chose to share with them. Grain elevators or other ag businesses can use Dropbox to give clients access to private files and documents such as grain contracts, cash grain bids, invoices or other data you wish to share with one or multiple clients. When you update a document, the client will also have access to the updated file. Below you will see “ABC Grain Elevator” and then three subfolders “Carlson Farms,” “Frank Farms” and “Grain Bids.” The two client subfolders will be used to share client specific grain contracts or other private data. The “Grain Bids” file will be used to share daily grain bids with all clients.
Documents too large? Have you ever tried to attach a large document to an email only to have it be rejected by the email provider? Dropbox is a quick fix for those large documents, simply store the file on Dropbox and share it with the intended recipients; it’s that easy.
The best news is that you get two gigabytes of space for free, that is a lot of space if all you’re saving is text files such as grain contracts or cash grain bids. If you choose to store all your files on dropbox it will only run you around $10/month for up to 50 gigabytes.
Link to Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/
Edit note: Mark Frank’s blog posts will focus on how agribusinesses can use new technology to improve daily operations.